IntelliBriefs bring you Intelligence briefs on Geopolitics , Security and Intelligence from around the world . We gather information and insights from multiple sources and present you in a digestible format to quench your thirst for right perspective, with right information at right time at right place . We encourage people to contact us with any relevant information that other news media organizations don't cover . Contact :intellibriefs@gmail.com

January 07, 2006

Brinda Karat seems to be acting as an agent of multinationals and christian organizations who want to undermine traditional Indian medicines and practices.

Navin Upadhyay/New Delhi

For the left, any saffron-clad swami is like a red rag to a bull. But when Ms Brinda Karat, high-flying CPI(M) politburo member, took on Swami Ramdev, it was not seen as another standoff between a Marxists and a Godman. CPM Politburo member Brinda Karat parades disgruntled employees of Ramdev's pharmacy to prove her point in Delhi on Saturday - Pioneer

After all, Baba Ramdev never mixed religion with preaching of Yoga and pranayam, and the takers of his Ayurveda medicines were not confined to any particular caste or creed.

Unlike many modern gurus who went on TV channels to preach about religion and God, Baba Ramdev used the reach of the medium to rekindle popular interest in Yoga, particularly pranayam. The number of his followers swelled, his appeal cut across boundaries of caste and faith and high and mighties from different walks of life sought his help to overcome stress and ailments.

Ms Karat did not understand the nature of support Baba Ramdev enjoys among the Indian middle class either. For hundreds of thousands of people, who have got inspiration from his teaching, he is a much-awaited messiah, who has brought for them the blessing of peace and health.

For many others who are battling with some incurable afflictions, he is their last hope. An attack against Baba Ramdev was an attack against not only his followers, but against all those who subscribe to the belief that there is serious need to rediscover the treasure trove of India's lost tradition of healing and cure. The spontaneous protests that spilled over into the streets were only expected.

If the controversy drags on, the CPI(M) could end up paying a heavy political price in north India. Baba Ramdev may be an apolitical swami, but not his followers. Someone like RJD chief Lalu Prasad and Mulayam Singh Yadav, who shared the left's allergy against Godman, broke rank with the Communists and were quick to defend Baba Ramdev. After all, Baba Ramdev is a symbol of Yadav pride. Actually, not just the two Yadavs but also OBC stalwarts like Kalyan Singh swear by him.

The powerful OBC lobby is aware that Baba Ramdev has a huge constituency, and they want to stand by him to reap a good political harvest. Not surprisingly, even the Congress leaders are openly backing the Baba while Ms Karat stands isolated within the Left.

Baba Ramdev's charge that MNCs are behind Ms Karat's campaign, may or may not be true, but it has left the Communists red-faced. Here was someone effectively using their own ammunition against them. Ms Karat and Co may find it difficult to carry on their campaign against Baba Ramdev for too long lest they are ready to lose more ground in the caste-ridden emotive landscape of North Indian politics.

But Ms Karat seemed determined to carry on her battle against Ramdev. Talking to reporters on Saturday she said the charge of animal and human remains in the medicines is based on what employees at the pharmacy have said.

"The statement has come from employees at the pharmacy. Those who work at the basic level, those who have transported bones and ground them. I believe their statement," said Ms Karat.

Ms Karat also took pains to clarify that the Left has nothing against Ayurveda per se. "The Left is not against Ayurveda. In fact, it is with our support that Ayurvedic establishments in Kerala are thriving. We have never said anything against Ayurveda or homeopathy. All this talk is misleading," she said.

Even though Ms Karat is trying to look undaunted, there are clear indications that even among the CPI(M) the support for her on this issue is limited. Perhaps, the crisis will teach the Marxists a lesson or two about the essence of Indian ethos, that surpasses appeal of caste and religion, and which looks fondly at ancient India and its traditions.

India can be blamed but the fact is Balochistan province of Pakistan wants independence from the country. According to media reports, Pakistan's Interior Minister Aftab Ahmed Khan Sherpao has "held India responsible" for the continuingunrest in Balochistan province and said the government haddecided to take "stern" action against those involved inanti-state activities in the province. Talking to reporters after meeting Baloch tribal leaders here, the Minister said "India is supporting the miscreants" in Balochistan. A renewed insurgency in Balochistan, where nationalists are targeting government installations and buildings to protest what they call continued denial of the due share in national resources to Balochis, has set off ripples all over the country, forcing the government to launch a limited military operation. These outlaws, Sherpao added, were involved "in terrorist activities" and created hindrance in the implementation of the mega-development package announced by President Pervez Musharraf. "The reaction of the neighbouring country over the action of Pakistan's law-enforcement agencies against the miscreants is clear evidence that they are being backed by India," he alleged. He said arwere being "smuggled" into Balochistan from tribal regions and Afghanistan's Kandahar province and absconders and criminals from other provinces were "reaching Kohlu town to have a safe refuge". "These absconders are also being used by the miscreants'' groups in anti-state activities." "The government will not hold any dialogue with those who are bent upon destroying national assets, hampering developmental activities in Balochistan and committing terrorism," the Minister said, adding "the government has decided to take a stern action against them as it wants to resolve the probleof the majority of people and expedite development activities in the province." He said the government tried its best to resolve the Balochistan issue through dialogue but added "the situation could not improve if dialogue and agreements were violated by tribal leaders." In reply to a question, he said about "9 to 10 absconders'' camps "had been detected in Kohlu. Denying reports of army action in the province, he said no operation was being conducted there and only "Levies and Rangers" were used to counter anti-state activities. Sherpao ruled out the possibility of erecting a fence at the Pakistan-Afghanistan border, saying more "check-posts" were being established there to stop "gunrunning and movement of terrorists" across the border.http://www.indiadaily.com/editorial/6301.asp

It is time to say VANDE MATARAM -Pakistan’s shadow ISI supported Lashkar-e-Taiba - It's not just Kashmir, they eye INDIA

Sonia Chopra Jan. 7, 2006

India must strike them at the source. Their source is financiers in Middle East and Pakistan. India must make it clear to America and China that nothing can stop India’s resolve in taking on Pakistan if the terror attacks by shadow ISI and so called Lashkar-e-Taiba do not stop. Hafiz Mohammed Saeed of Lashkar-e-Taiba’s had declared in July that "the jehad in Kashmir would soon spread to other parts of India. Our mujahideen would create three Pakistans in India." It is time for every Indians to rise up and take these terrorists out. It is the people of India who have to teach these terrorists some lessons – not just the Indian security forces. http://www.indiadaily.com/editorial/6302.asp

SUCCESSIVE RALLIES IN US AND CANADA WILL CONDEMN PAKISTAN GOVERNMENT ACTIONS IN BALOCHISTAN AND ON KALABAGH DAM

January 6, 2006. Washington, DC. - The World Sindhi Institute condemns the ongoing military operation in Balochistan and calls for an independent human rights investigation. Since December 18th, the Pakistan security forces have been carrying out attacks in the Kohlu and Dera Bugti districts of Balochistan using helicopter gunships and fighter jets. Over one hundred people have been killed, among them many innocent women and children. At first denying the attacks, then calling them just a law and order operation, the army's brutal tactics are unlikely to resolve any conflict or grievances between the Baloch people and the central government.

At the same time, the government of Gen. Parvez Musharraf is aggressively pushing its policy of constructing the Kalabagh dam, despite massive opposition from the majority of the Pakistani people, including those in Sindh, NWFP, Balochistan, and even Punjab. In the face of demonstrations, rallies and public statements of opposition during the last weeks and months by officials and political leaders from all walks of life, Musharraf and his cabinet are insisting that the project will go ahead. Such blatant disregard for the desires of the people must be countered.

WSI cannot keep silent in the face of these attacks against innocent people. To express its opposition to these anti-democratic actions, a series of rallies will take place on successive Mondays, beginning on Monday, February 6th. Sindhis, Baloch, Pakhtuns and their supporters will gather in front of Pakistan consulates to register their opposition. The series of rallies will begin in Washington, DC, followed by Chicago, Houston, Los Angeles, New York City and Toronto, Canada. More information on these actions will be broadcast shortly, including the dates, times and locations. All people who are concerned about these issues are urged to participate and register their voices.

Munawar Laghari

Executive Director

1050 17th Street NW

Suite#700

Washington, D.C 20036

Tel:202-223-1777/8

Fax:202-223-1779

wsihq@worldsindhi.org

www.worldsindhi.org

For more information, please Phone: 202-223-1777or email us at wsihq@worldsindhi.org.

With our profound thanks and appreciation, brother Munawwar Laghari, the Executive Director of World Sindhi Instiute and the leaders and activists of WSI have again taken the lead to organize a series of activities in North America concerning the Balochistan and Sindh situation. As usual, the Baloch Society of North America led by Dr. Wahid Baloch, the Baloch peace group led by Waajah Waheed Baloch (former Speaker of Balochistan Assembly) and Waajah Dr. Taraa Chand Baloch (former member of Balochistan Assembly), and Baloch Human Rights International, will fully participate in these WSI-organized activities.

Please read the following WSI notice and get ready to participate and help. Details about rallies in each city will be declared soon. The Washington, D.C. rally is tentatively scheduled for Feb. 6, 2006. There will definitely be a demonstration in front of the White House and the US State Department to show how the Musharraf Regime is using American military , economic, and moral support against the Baloch and Sindhis who happen to be the only sincere friends of the West in the regionI am leaving for Washington, D.C. on January 24 to join Waajah Waheed Baloch to do whatever preparatory work we can do.

All web, broadcast and print media are requested to publish these postings.

P-sec HRD Minister rewrites history of Bharatam's independence and partition Arun Shourie had noted in his 'Eminent Historians' how crores of rupees were spent and yet the true history of Bharatam Janam has yet to be written.

And, now we find there is no need to waste any more funds, because the minister in-charge of education claims he knows everything :) So, modify all modern history textbooks and add Arjun Singh's speech as the principal chapter.

But see Arun Shourie: Eminent Historians: Their Technology, Their Line, Their Fraud http:

Towards Freedom Project http://arunshourie.voiceofdharma.com/articles/19980627.htmOne quack notes that p-sec historians were talking about their freedom to make money, not about Swarajyam of Bharatam. Different folks, different strokes. History can wait.

k

RSS, Hindu Mahasabha responsible for Partition: Arjun Singh

PTI News, Jan. 7, 2006

Bhopal, Jan 7 (PTI) Holding the RSS and Hindu Mahasabha responsible for Partition, senior Congress leader and Union HRD Minister Arjun Singh today claimed that the BJP would collapse like a pack of cards due to "its inner contradictions and hollow principles."

"Though Mohammedd Ali Jinnah is considered the propounder of the two-nation theory, history is witness that Hindu Mahasabha and RSS were instrumental in projecting Hindus and Muslims as separate and claiming they cannot stay together," Singh said at a seminar on 'The real face of BJP' here.

"It is true that Jinnah took advantage of the two-nation theory when the country was about to get independence by seeking formation of Pakistan, but the first to conceptualise the division were Hindu Mahasabha and RSS," Singh said, accusing the Sangh of giving a wrong direction to history.

Hailing the role of Congress leaders, Singh said if they had given up their efforts to keep the country intact, India would have remained backward like Pakistan without experiencing development.

Ridiculing the BJP for "shedding tears for Partition" and blaming the Congress for it, the minister said that the Muslim population in India is much larger than that in Pakistan.

"They are here not due to helplessness or compulsion but because of an atmosphere of trust and confidence," Singh said adding that while accusing Congress of appeasement, BJP must realise "it is meant for our own people and countrymen."

Describing the BJP as a party suffering from inherent contraditions and hollow principles, Singh said "it is like a pack of cards and one cannot imagine how it will collapse. But someone has to blow the wind." PTI

January 06, 2006

“I have videos and some pictures as undeniable evidence of the killings.” “I can show it to the media; according to our reports, 32 Hindus and 27 Muslims were killed while 22 people were injured in the incident.” -- Nawab Akbar BugtiSource : Link

Pakistan's Electronic and print media denied this incident, which was caused by their own Army and security forces. A Local of Dera Bugti Made these Video's. We are providing few clips from the Video for downloads...

Details are only now available of the 10-hour-long battle between the Frontier Corps troops and Balochi nationalists belonging to the Bugti tribe on March 17,2005. Twenty-eight members of the Bugti tribe and 33 Hindus living under the protection of the tribe were killed during the exchange of fire. Of the Hindus killed, 19 were children.Caution Graphics Video

Police suspect that the youth received training in Pakistan, Bangladesh Youth came into contact with hardened terrorists while serving time in prison for various crimes. This helped organisations build their terror network.

The town's tryst with fundamentalism not a new phenomenon With the police focussing on tackling naxalites unhindered Functioning of State police under spotlight --------------------------------------------------------------------------------

HYDERABAD: The recent arrest of a suspected Laskhar-e-Taiba (LeT) operative, Razi-Ur-Rehman alias Abdul Rehman, from Nalgonda in connection with the terror strike at the Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore, has jolted law enforcement agencies in Andhra Pradesh.

The secret operation by the Karnataka police has once again proved that all may not be well at Nalgonda, a small district headquarters town.

Though the claim of the Karnataka police that Rehman is the LeT's south India in-charge is yet to be substantiated, the arrest brings into focus the discomfiting idea that Nalgonda — about 100 km from Hyderabad — continues to be a centre for subversive activities by fundamentalist organisations, which are backed by Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence.

Terrorist camps

The police suspect that at least two dozen youngsters hailing from the town have gone underground. Intelligence agencies suspect that they were trained in terrorist camps in Bangladesh and Pakistan. Most of them could have returned to India as `sleepers' of the terror outfits, ready to act when their `operators' give them the green signal. It is possible some of them were involved, directly or indirectly, in the December 28, 2005 attack on the IISc.

Nalgonda's tryst with fundamentalism is not a new phenomenon. It is an offshoot of the ISI's K2 plan to "liberate" Khalistan and Kashmir in the late 1980s. As part of the plan, the ISI recruited Salauddin, who is now believed to be in Pakistan.

He floated a students' organisation, which was to groom youngsters into "people ready to fight and foment trouble," sources said.

Nalgonda's proximity to Hyderabad has helped to make the town a haven for fundamentalists. The communal violence in 1990 in Hyderabad that claimed 258 lives and the shilanyas programme taken up in the country turned Nalgonda into a beehive of activity.

Grooming youth

Salauddin groomed a group of second-rung leaders, Asgar Ali, Shamshuddin, Fasiuddin, Abdul Aziz and Mohammed Rafeeq. These youths were arrested for various criminal activities and they became full-fledged operatives of militant groups while serving sentences in the district jail in Mushirabad.

Other terrorists such as Mujeeb, Jalees Ansari and Bilal Ahmed Kullu were already in the jail when these youngsters served their term.

Mujeeb, a Hizb activist, was recently re-arrested in Hyderabad after he completed a term for killing Additional Superintendent of Police Krishna Prasad.

Daily interaction with the terrorists hardened the arrested youngsters and most of them went underground after they were released on bail.

It was the jail connections that helped Asgar Ali (now imprisoned in Gujarat in the Haren Pandya killing case) go to Kashmir to fetch RDX and weapons for creating trouble in Hyderabad.

Focus on naxalism

As the police began focussing on tackling the naxalite problem, fundamentalism grew unhindered. The police did not make concerted efforts to keep track of religious fundamentalism-based militant activity, though they occasionally busted ISI modules.

Following the recent attack on the police task force office in Hyderabad, the State police have begun concentrating on terrorist activity and picked up two persons.

Mujeeb, who was released for good behaviour in 2004, was re-arrested. The police allege that he was planning subversive activities and trying to mobilise funds and weapons.

The arrests of Mujeeb in Hyderabad and Rehman in Nalgonda have brought the functioning of the State police into the spotlight.

Senior police officers concede that religious fundamentalism should receive as much attention as Left-wing extremism.

January 05, 2006

Balochistan is suffering from a severe crisis by the hands of Pakistani Government , namely the Pakistan army. We therefore appeal the international community to help to stop massacre which is resulting in human loss of lives, instability and worst human rights crisis in the region. A letter with details is attached for your kind consideration and intervention. We look forward for your immediate attention in this crisis. Thank you,

On behalf of people of Balochistan and Four Party Baloch Alliance, we would like to draw your attention to the deteriorating human rights situation in (Pakistani) Balochistan where arrests, kidnappings, disappearances and illegal detention of Baloch students, political workers and leaders by Pakistani police and military intelligence agencies, including Inter Services Intelligence (ISI) IB, are surpassing all limits.

Ongoing Military Operation

After committing a series of human rights violations in the deprived and backward province of Balochistan, Pakistan military has launched a military operation against innocent civilians and progressive elements of Balochistan.

On 18th December 2005, Pakistan Army started a full-fledged operation in entire Balochistan and particularly in districts Kohlu and Dera Bugt that are rich in natural-resources. The people there are not opposed to development but against the exploitation of these natural resources without benefit to local communities. They also oppose the establishment of military bases (cantonments) on their territory. By using force against the villagers, the Pakistan army is trying to compel them to vacate their homes to open this area for the exploitation of its rich oil and gas resources.

Pakistan Air Force fighterjets, Army gunship helicopters and heavy artillery is being used against the unarmed innocents and nomads of these areas. More then to one hundred deaths have been reported which include mostly women and children. For pictures and details, please visit www.balochvoice.com.Political Victimisation

Followings are some examples of victimization:

Abdul Nabi Bungulzai (former Chairman of Baloch Students Organization, a highly educated and progressive political leader of Balochistan) was arrested in February 2001 along with 11 others. After being inhumanly tortured, he is being kept under detention without any trial and is now imprisoned in Quetta Central jail.

Ali Asghar Bangulzai, was kidnapped on 18th October, 2001 by ISI, his family was threatened against approaching any Court. Still his disappearance, his family and children have protested in front of the Quetta Press Club for the last eight months. His whereabouts are still unknown. For more detail; http://www.bso-na.org

Hafiz Saeed ur Rehman Bangulzai’s whereabouts are unknown after his kidnapping and disappearance in 2002.

Gwahram Baloch s/o Saleh Mohammad was abducted on 8th August, 2004 by Military Intelligence and ISI personnel. He is still missing.

On 25 March 2005, students and political activists Dr. Imdad Baloch (chairman of Baloch Students Organization or BSO), Dr. Allah Nazar (former Chairman of BSO), Dr. Yousuf (Press Secretary of BSO), Ghulam Rasool (member Central Committee of BSO), Dr. Naseem (ex- member Central Committee of BSO), AIi Nawaz and Akhtar Nadeem were detained and taken to ISI secret torture cells and severely tortured continuously for five months.

Dr Allah Nazar Baloch (Former Chairmen of BSO, a MBBS Doctor) kidnapped by ISI and Karachi police on 25th March, disappeared for six months. Recovered from Multan, he is detained in Quetta Central jail.

In August 2005 Majid Samad and fourteen members of BSO were arrested in Turbat, they were mercilessly tortured by army intelligence agencies and are still under illegal detention.

On 22nd September 2005, Abid Saleh, younger brother of abducted Gwahram Baloch was kidnapped by army and still missing.

On 15th November 2005, a leading poet and writer in Balochi Language and Medical practitioner Dr. Hanif Sharif was detained by Army units. His whereabouts are not known to his friends and family.

On 23 November 2005, Aslam Gorgnadi, Master Saeed and Khuda Bux Bizenjo were forcefully taken away by army units along with their counsel Advocate Sadiq Raisani from the High Court Building despite the court orders to release them after their two years detention without trial.

These are just a few cases that were highlighted by international press. There are many others that are yet to be disclosed. The refusal to release Baloch illegal detainees is a typical example of the arrogant mindset of an occupying army. These are acts of violation against Pakistan’s constitutional provisions and are crimes against humanity.

The new waves of illegal arrests, kidnappings, detentions and tortures of Baloch people by the Pakistan Government is coupled with other attempts to destabilize Balochistan’s social and political fabric, by:

--Fomenting inter-tribal and intra-tribal conflicts.

--Patronizing antisocial and criminal elements in Balochistan. This is being done throughout Balochistan by recruiting antisocial elements and convicted criminals in the international drug trafficking business run by Pakistan Army, ISI and ANF and Coast Guard. These antisocial elements and hired drug traffickers are armed and have unlimited support of government secret agencies, are acting as warlords. These criminal elements are also being elected in so-called general and local elections to political positions and are being portrayed as the representative of the Baloch nation. These acts on behalf of Pakistan army are creating social anarchy and upheavals in Baloch society.

-- Active patronage, funding, housing, weapons, special permits to the Taliban to reside in towns and particularly in Quetta, and to open new religious schools for recruitment of Taliban As a result, these extreme religious ideologies are being artificially imposed on a basically secular oriented Baloch society.

Attacks on Political Leaders

Balochistan National Party (BNP) will also like to draw your kind attention towards the humiliating acts against the Baloch political leadership by the Pakistani army and its agents.

On 17th March 2005, when the Pakistani army launched a military operation against the innocent Baloch of Dera Bugti, they directly targeted the residence of Nawab Akber Khan Bugti (President of Jamhoori Watan Party). More then 70 innocent children and women of Hindu Baloch religious minority, living near Dera Bugti’s residence were killed. Dera Bugti region is still surrounded by thousands of heavily armed army units.

In October 2005, agents of Pakistan Army intelligence services fired rockets and other lethal ammunition on the residence of Sardar Attaullah Mengal (Chief Patron of Balochistan National Party and President of Pakistan Oppressed Nations Movement) in Wadh District of Khuzdar in south central Balochistan. The residence and hometown of Sardar Mengal and Akhtar Mengal (President of Balochistan National Party) is still surrounded by paramilitary forces in large numbers.

Developing Balochistan?

Balochistan Provincial Assembly on 23 September 2003 unanimously passed a resolution against the construction of Army cantonments in three resource-rich districts of Balochistan (Dera Bugti, Kohlu and Gwadar), and demanded that money allocated for establishment of these military bases be used instead for the establishment of schools, colleges, and the socio-economic development of province.

The construction of army cantonments and the deployment of thousands of para-military forces through out Balochistan is presenting a picture of siege and has created a sense of insecurity among Baloch people. Islamabad is treating Balochistan as a Garrison province. There are four mega Military Cantonments, 52 Para-Military cantonments, five Navel bases including Jinnah navel base in Gwadar, and six major Air Force bases, There are also three nuclear testing sites and six missile testing ranges in Balochistan. Appeal

The acts of terror and humiliation and a continuum of state terrorism will not only increase the ever present tension and hatred between Baloch people and Pakistani police state, but it could lead to a point where a bloody confrontation between Baloch and the Pakistani state is inevitable, resulting in the loss of life and properties of defenseless Baloch people.

The Pakistan army is continuously and contemptuously ignoring the appeals of Human Rights Commission of Pakistan, Amnesty International and other human right groups for the release of illegal detainees. The Baloch people demand their political, economic and social rights, guaranteed by the Pakistan constitution, and international human rights laws, instruments and declarations.

Immediate intervention by western powers in general and by your respective Government in particular will save Baloch lives and prevent the kind of genocide of the Baloch people by the Pakistani army that the world witnessed in East Pakistan during 1971.

The Balochistan National Party (BNP) appeals to your government to please intervene to help to stop these human right violations by the Pakistani army and its agents before it is too late.

Please raise this issue in all international forums including the United Nations, the European Union and the Commonwealth. The people of Balochistan will be highly obliged. The Balochistan National Party (BNP) highly appreciates your kind immediate attention and positive intervention in this matter.

Thanking you in anticipation,

From Members Senate of Pakistan

Senator Sanaullah Baloch

Member Senate of Pakistan

On behalf of Balochistan National PartySenator Mohammed Aslam Buledi

Member Senate of Pakistan On behalf of National PartySenator Amanullah Kanrani

Member Senate of Pakistan On behalf of Jamoori Watan Party

From Members of Balochistan provincial Assembly Mr. Kachkol Ali Baloch

On 17th December 2005 Pakistani Army launched an army operation against innocent Marri Baloch people throughout Kohlu District, Parts of Dera Bugti, Noshki, Makran Districts and other parts of Balochistan.

More then thirty thousand army personnel twelve Gunship helicopters, four fighter jets, several spy planes of different sizes, heavy artillery, poisonous gases and missiles are being used only in Talli, Bambore, Kahan, Jabbar, Nasau, Quat, Mundai and other parts of Marri Area.

Due to ten days of intensive bombing and shelling by army Jets, Gunship Helicopters and heavy artillery at least 86 confirm deaths and more then 120 serious wounded have been reported. Mostly victims are women and young children.

It is time for the Baloch people to unite and stand up against such atrocities by Punjabi Pakistan. Let me remind the international community that it is not the first time that such severe measures have been taken against the Baloch Nation.

Until and unless the Baloch don’t unite and get the help of the international community to put a leash on Pakistani (Punjabi Army) this slaughter of Baloch people will continue.

Pictures of Marri women and children killed in bombing and shelling by Pakistani Army. This shameless Pakistani Army still denies that there is no Army Operation going on in Balochistan.

Take a look at the pictures below they speak for themselves, mutilated bodies of innocent young children who were deprived of all the facilities of modern world and now deprived of their own life, all this destitution to the Baloch is by the tyrant and shameless Punjabi Pakistani Army. By Balochvoice.com 28.12.05

I am writing to you as I believe that you can play a very significant role in reshaping of the geography of South Asia in order to combat international terrorism. The entire terrorism network has been managed by terrorist forces stationed in Pakistan under the safe umbrella of Government of Pakistan. These terrorist forces have taken the shelter of Islamic identity in order to implement their dangerous designs of dominating South Asia and make it an Islamic territory altogether thereby driving out Christians, Hindus and Sikhs living in India. The ultimate scheme was first made during the lifetime of late General Zia-ul-Haq who can be termed as the main actor towards this direction. The said General Zia-ul-Haq took advantage of the then Afghan-Russian war and made it possible to develop a terrorist network in the region by sponsoring extremist Islamic groups and providing them all necessary military training and ammunition. The atomic program of Pakistan was also part of this endeavor. However, General Zia-ul-Haq died in a military plane crash in 1988 and there was the beginning of a new democratic era in Pakistan. But this democracy was itself fake in the sense that same old faces appeared to rule the country for their own monetary benefits. Consequently, Pakistan became yet another victim of terrorist forces which acted from the strong base of Pakistan Army which has been the main principal of all terrorism in the South Asia. It was Pakistan Army which does not want any peace in the region so as to keep the region under stress in general and to keep India being their hostile neighbor under a constant military threat.

The coming back of Pakistan Army in power through General Pervez Musharraf from the back doors on October 12, 1999 was yet another attempt to continue with the same old plan of Islamic domination in South Asia as masterminded by late General Zia-ul-Haq. This conspiracy had enjoyed assistance of China as China needed a strong Pakistan to keep an eye on India so that India should not become any problem for China in her traditional desire to win the regional supremacy which may pave way for her becoming another super war.

Pakistan is the central headquarters of all terrorist activities under the authoritative command of Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) an organ of Pakistan Army who have been sheltering Islamic terrorists organizations in the country through military as well as financial support. Their objective is simple that is to rule the region under an Islamic system of their own brand and elimination of non-Muslim communities and culture. They believe that unless they use power they cannot fulfil their ambitions and as such they have found terrorism as the most convenient method for accomplishment of their political agenda. In order to promote this terrorism through religious recognition and some historic significance with a view to make it attractive for the youngsters, they misinterpreted the concept of Jihad (holy war) and since the Muslim masses living in that region are totally illiterate and ignorant about their own religion, they were misguided by the help of hypocrite Islamic scholars who motivated and induced the foolish young Muslims to fight against non-Muslims. These fools did not even think that if it was the question of Muslim and Non-Muslim, then they should also fight China being totally out of the religious orbit. But, in that case, their brains do not work because it is but China itself which is assisting the Pakistan Army in such activities. Hence, the entire phenomenon is not to propagate the Muslim beliefs but to conquer the whole world through the assistance of China. Pakistan right now is the puppet of China and therefore it has become inevitable to address this issue on top priority.

Chinese experts in connivance with the Pakistan Army have worked very intelligently to use the religion of Islam as a tool very useful to be used for extracting cheap fighting force in the name of holy war. On the other hand, the whole Pakistan Army getting salaries in millions of dollars per annum is not coming forward for this s-called Jihad simply for the reason that they know that it has nothing to do with any Jihad but to implement certain long-term political plans. It is, therefore, very essential to focus from a different angle without wasting any further time on Osama Bin Laden who is nobody but a well-trained puppet of Pakistan Army being used extensively for the purpose of masterminding the terrorist schemes and implementing them through the technical co-operation of Pakistan.

Inter Services Intelligence Agency (ISI) is the real government in Pakistan. In the present situation it is the ISI, which is devising the self-made covert policies for the Government and also ensuring its implementation. It is part of the ISI’s well-established policy to organize violent pro-Taliban protest demonstrations against the United States in the provinces of Sindh, Balochistan and NWFP (North West Frontier Province) and keep the province of Punjab away from these demonstrations and strikes. After the terrorist attacks of 11th September 2001, the United States and the international community declared in clear words that we would now see that “who stands with us or against us”. The United States and international community assured the Pakistani rulers that if they extend co-operation to United States and international community in the war against terrorism, Pakistan would get the legitimate fruits of such co-operation. After these assurances of the International Community, the ISI conspired to activate the religious and so-called Jihadi groups on their payroll to use the provinces of Sindh, Balochistan and NWFP (North-West Frontier Province) provinces as their battleground against United States and International Community. This conspiracy to use the minority provinces was aimed to give the United States of America and the International Community a completely wrong impression that people living in these provinces are against USA while the real situation is totally different. Pakistan Army through its terrorism network called ISI has made an attempt to tarnish the image of small provinces of present Pakistan on one hand and on the other to deceive USA and the International Community. It is a bitter truth that the province of Punjab is the hub of all the fanatical and so-called Jihadi groups and the Headquarters of all the fanatical and extremists groups are situated in different cities of the province of Punjab like Lahore, Multan, Jhang, Faisalabad and Nankana. The ISI’s “game” to deceive the United States and international community would not last long and this act of deception would reach to its logical conclusion. When that happens the world would know who actually benefited by deceiving others and who lost, whereas who was deceived by whom and who was hoodwinked.

It is not understandable as to why the Americans are not addressing the real issue. The real issue is Pakistan itself. In Pakistan, there is no religious disintegration right now. Rather all the religious groups are having mental equation when it is about the religion. There is no conflict among them if it is about Islam. Although they advocate a different Islam which was never the one introduced by Muhammad Bin Abdullah in Mecca some 1500 years ago, yet they are together under the supervision of ISI. ISI has sponsored this new brand of Islam with ulterior motives and to implement its hidden agenda. This new brand of Islam does not enjoy any recognition from the Muslims who really believe in Muhammad. It is indeed unfortunate that Islam has always been victimized throughout by the people who terms themselves as Muslims. Muhammad's Islam was hijacked even in his own lifetime when there were people who disliked Muhammad's relatives and wives. Such miscreants even accused Muhammad's wife Ayesha of adultery. People like Amir Mawiya hated Ali, the nephew of Muhammad so much so that Ali wrote to him several letters condemning Amir Mawiya to be a hypocrite. The revenge came exactly 50 years later when son of Amir Mawiya called Yazeed killed Hussain brutally who was the grand son of Muhammad and son of Ali at the place called Karbala (Iraq). The shia sect of Islam condemn this brutal murder of Hussain and do not recognize Ami Mawiya as Muslim for this arbitrary act of his son Yazeed. Today, Iran is the shia state while a large number of Shias live in Iraq also. It was one of the evil designs of late General Zia-ul-Haq that he made Pakistan a difficult place for shias and the formation of certain militant religious organizations was yet part of this plan. Today we have yet another Yazeed bin Amir Mawiya called Osama Bin Laden and several followers who have changed the very fabric of Islam in the new century. These are religious demons representing the Satan and not Islam.

It is, therefore, necessary to disintegrate Pakistan if we want to collapse the terrorists' network altogether. Unless we destroy the root cause of the whole terrorism tree, we will not be able to eliminate terrorism from the region which has been transformed into a centralized processing unit working under an integrated system not conveniently accessible unless Pakistan is divided in at least four parts. It is essential to divide the northern part of Pakistan into two countries that is Punjabistan and Pakhtoonistan. The Punjabistan will be on the eastern side and the present province of Punjab can be converted into Punjabistan while the North West Frontier Province (NWFP) having its borders with Afghanistan should be made another country called Pakhtoonistan. The new Pakhtoonistan will be a country loyal to the international comity of nations and shall not harbor any terrorists within its geography. Punjabistan shall not have any access to terrorist camps now being run by Pakistan Army in Afghanistan and NWFP as Pakhtoonistan will be a hurdle between Afghanistan and Punjabistan. The Pakistan Army mainly belongs to Punjab and hence the creation of Punjabistan and Pakhtoonistan will break the integrated network between Afghanistan and ISI (Pakistan Army).

On the southern part of Pakistan, two new countries Sindhudesh and Jinnahpur can be made. The Sindhudesh will comprise of Sindhis living in the province of Sindh while Jinnahpur will be a country to house the urdu speaking immigrants from India who had migrated from India after partition of 1947. The population of urdu speaking community living in Karachi (the main commercial city of Pakistan) is around 15 Million. This new country called Jinnahpur can be a secular state of its own kind. The idea is that some 10 million Christians from India may also voluntarily migrate to Jinnahpur to form a pure secular state in South Asia so as to keep a political balance in the region. In Karachi alone (which will be transformed into a new country called Jinnahpur), we can have as many churches as we want along with awarding rights of preaching Christianity and Islam in parallel terms. There will be no extra-ordinary religious resistance in Karachi for the sole reason that the new countries Pakhtoonistan and Punjabistan will have no immediate links with Jinnahpur and as such the terrorist network would not be effective at all. The preaching groups like Tablighi Jamaat (Muslim Preaching Organization based in Raiwind near Lahore-Pakistan) will no more be as effective as now after losing their linkage with their country-wide network. This linkage can only be broken through disintegration of Pakistan. The religious schools called Madressas will no longer be connected with each other. The so-called religious scholars will be confined to their own areas of birth and permanent residence and shall not freely move to other cities in the region presently called Pakistan. Jinnahpur will be a purely secular state with a significant Christian population. We can have permanent airbases of USA and other military set-ups in Jinnahpur to keep a sound military control in the region to safeguard the entire humanity from the threats of terrorism.

The geography of South Asia has to be revised to combat the terrorism and to prevent further loss of lives in the name of Jihad. The region has become very dangerous to spark 3rd world war and if not checked at this hour of need, country like Pakistan, which has attained nuclear technology due to assistance of China, can become dangerous for the whole humanity. Today we have some loyal people in Pakistan Army who would prefer to favor anti-terrorism drive initiated by the Americans. But what about the religious groups within Pakistan Army which are equally responsible in promotion of terrorism in the name of Islamic domination and are still busy to destabilize the international efforts towards the direction of elimination of terrorism altogether. How can such religious groups destroy their own puppet government called Taliban whom they helped right from its inception and are still harboring their leaders and terrorists like Osama Bin Laden. They may come into power and remove General Pervez Musharaf from his present status. What the Americans will do when a more religious-minded foolish army man captures power in Pakistan? Will they think of bringing back of democracy in Pakistan? It will be too late at that time. It is therefore better to act now.

Pakistan should be divided into four parts as immediately as possible under the supervision of United Nations in the best interest of humanity. This would not be any sort of denying any sovereign country of its right to exist. Pakistan is comprised of five nations and there is no problem in giving these nations their new countries to enable them to have a more realistic identity of their own. This is necessary to eliminate the roots of terrorism completely. This geo-political surgery has become inevitable to save the humanity from the cruel hands of terrorists who will come again to strike and they have no other place to hide and conspire but Pakistan.

I request the entire humanity to join me in this campaign of disintegrating Pakistan in the best interest of the whole humanity. If we break Pakistan today, we are disintegrating the entire terrorist network headquartered in Pakistan. This terrorist network works through a very technical integration in terms of Islamic militant groups, Islamic preaching organizations and Islamic schools called Madressas. A divided Pakistan will destroy the spinal cord of the terrorism and there will be no training camps, no more Osamas and no more threat to humanity.

Say YES to this petition and support international fight against terrorism and against those who harbor terrorists and their supporters. Disintegration of Pakistan will pave way to divide the forces busy to make new designs to conquer the world through terrorism. A divided Pakistan will bring peace to the region and shall facilitate destruction of terrorist training camps and elimination of terrorism altogether. Also read http://www.PetitionOnline.com/MQM47/petition.html

The Left, especially the CPI(M), has mastered the sinister art of hurling unfounded allegations, maligning individuals and organisations, and peddling slander as 'truth'. Witness the manner in which CPI(M) Politburo member and Rajya Sabha MP Brinda Karat has levelled serious and potentially damaging charges against Baba Ramdev and the Ayurvedic medicines prepared and marketed by his Divya Yog Pharmacy at Khankal near Haridwar in Uttaranchal.

In a sensational 'disclosure', Ms Karat has claimed that Baba Ramdev's Ayurvedic medicines contain animal and human parts and that these contents are not listed on the label as required under the law. To buttress her outrageous claim, she has also produced a letter from the Union Health Ministry. What does not seem to have struck her - or perhaps she chose to ignore the contents of the letter, smug in the belief that a Comrade's word is taken as the absolute truth - is that the Health Ministry has not endorsed her slanderous charge.

On the contrary, it has pointed out, and this merits reiteration, that the samples were collected by her and not by independent inspectors or State drug controllers as per established procedure; that they were labelled as products of Divya Pharmacy, Rishikesh and not Divya Yog Pharmacy, Khankal; and, that Uttaranchal authorities have been asked to take further action.

Most important, the letter does not mention that the samples had any trace of animal or human parts. Yet, Ms Karat, in true Communist style, has chosen to spit and run, confident that neither she nor the CPI(M) will ever be made accountable for such gross and defamatory misrepresentation. Baba Ramdev has been prompt in countering the allegations, but if he were to opt for legal remedy, we can be sure that the Left as a whole will unleash a venomous campaign, tarring him and his millions of followers for daring to challenge the Marxist version of 'truth'.

Of course, there is the other possibility that Ms Karat will just refuse to turn up in court, feigning illness or indisposition. That example was set by Comrade Harkishen Singh Surjeet, who, after wilfully maligning actor Anupam Kher and hounding him out of the Censor Board, did not have the courage to respond to court summons in a subsequent defamation case.

However, the essential cowardice - a trait shared by all bullies - of our Leftists need not detain us. What is of concern to society at large is the Left's, more notably the CPI(M)'s, nefarious campaign against Baba Ramdev's attempt to revive indigenous and traditional systems of medicine which, in the long run, could dent the profit margins of multinational drug companies. Ironically, Ms Karat, while promoting her twisted perception of this nation and its traditions, has served a blow for the very MNCs whom her party misses no chance to berate.

Or is the Left's anti-MNC rhetoric merely a ruse to mislead the masses? There may be more than a grain of truth in Baba Ramdev's counter-charge; the history of Communism is replete with amazing tales of strange and apparently inexplicable alliances. It is, after all, an ideology preached with a forked tongue.

This paper believes that irrespective of the individuals involved, if the law has been violated, the guilty should be punished. But judgement cannot be pronounced by Ms Karat and her comrades who have little regard for facts and even lesser respect for truth. India is a democracy governed by the law of the land, not a Communist dictatorship ruled by commissars.

www.dailypioneer.com/

VHP supports Ramdev, wants suit against Brinda

Press Trust of India

Lucknow, January 5, 2006

VHP on Thursday came out in support of yoga guru Ramdev slamming the CPI(M) for acting at the behest of multinational companies.

They alleged that CPI(M) was involved in the international conspiracy to defame and humiliate the yogiraj working to popularise the ayurveda method of treating dreaded diseases.

People should oppose the designs to defame the yogiraj who has popularised and revived the faith of crores of people in the traditional Indian method of treatment of ayurveda, VHP media incharge, Sharad Sharma said in a statement.

The world has come to understand that ayurveda can match allopathy through the works of swami Ramdev and the communists are trying to create hurdles in his growing popularity, Sharma said

January 03, 2006

For a moment Union Home Minister Shivraj Patil was shocked with disbelief but soon regained composure when he saw the border with Bangladesh totally unfenced with just concrete pillars separating the two countries.

The Home Minister, along with the Assam Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi and a team of All Assam Students' Union (AASU) leaders, on Monday visited two border sectors along western Assam's Dhubri district.

Maslabari, about 315 kilometres west of Guwahati, was the first destination for Mr Patil and his team of 18 senior home ministry officials, including the director general of the Border Security Force Ranjit Shekhar Mooshahary.

"The Home Minister was literally shocked when he saw that there was no fencing at all in the Maslabari area. People can easily walk through a vast paddy field and enter from Bangladesh to our side of the border," AASU advisor Sammujjal Bhattacharyya said.

Mr Bhattacharyya was part of the four-member AASU team that accompanied the Home Minister during the border visit. "We have for the past 26-years been shouting and demanding that the border be fenced as the porous frontiers were allowing large scale infiltration of illegal Bangladeshis into Assam," the AASU leader said.

"The Central Government always think we were overreacting. But when we took the Home Minister to Maslabari and showed him it was free for all in the open border he was indeed surprised," he said.

The AASU leader said Maslabari was just one instance of the border being open - there are vast stretches in the 272 kilometre land border that Assam shares with Bangladesh that is yet to be fenced.

The Maslabari sector is about 20 kilometres and the entire stretch is open with no border fencing. "This border would have to be sealed, By December 2006, the entire border would be fenced," Mr Patil was quoted by Mr Bhattacharyya as telling them during the visit.

The next visit was the Sonahat area where Mr Patil was reportedly embarrassed as well. "There is a border fencing in the Sonahat area but then it was in a deplorable condition. The fencing was just in name," the AASU leader said.

The Home Minister, this time too, assured that new double layered fencing would be erected in place of the existing ones.

Mr Patil's visit to the border follows a commitment by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh last May that a joint team of the Central and the Assam Governments and AASU leaders would inspect the Bangladesh border areas to oversee border fencing works.

The AASU is a students' group spearheading a campaign to oust illegal Bangladeshi nationals from the State and sealing the border. The six-year-old anti-foreigners' uprising had culminated in the signing of the Assam Accord in 1985 although several major clauses of the pact was not implemented till date.

"This is a major victory for the AASU to have taken the Home Minister to the border and made him see the free-for-all border. Now we shall monitor the progress of the fencing work," Mr Bhattacharyya said.

It is tragic that though Hinduism proclaims universal brotherhood and oneness of humanity, and addresses entire humanity as divine children (Shrunvantu vishve amrutsya putraha Rig Veda: 10-13-1), Hindus are being treated with disdain and discrimination, and are being denied even the basic human rights in Pakistan and Bangladesh which used to be Hindu lands.

Let us see the plight of Hindus in these nations vis-a-vis the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights adopted and proclaimed by the United Nations General Assembly on December 10, 1948, "as a common standard of achievement for all peoples and all nations".

As per Article 1 of this Declaration, "All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights." Article 2 specifies, "Everyone is entitled to all the rights and freedoms set forth in this Declaration, without distinction of any kind, such as race, colour, sex, language, religion ...." Article 3 stipulates: "Everyone has the right to life, liberty and security of person." Article 7 stresses equality before law, and protection against discrimination. And Article 18 makes the tall statement, "Everyone has the right to freedom of thought, conscience and religion."

Few centuries ago, Hindu religion and culture used to reverberate from Afghanistan to Indonesia. Indian sub-continent including the present day India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Nepal, Afghanistan and even Zabol in Iran was Hindu land, and had no Muslim presence till Muslims attacked the sub-continent in 8th century. Hindus lost Afghanistan to Muslims in 987. After many centuries, Muslims got Pakistan in 1947.

Pakistan comprised of two segments: East Pakistan and West Pakistan. In 1971, East Pakistan became Bangladesh, a separate country. Both Pakistan and Bangladesh have been declared as Islamic republics.

Hindus have always been threatened and discriminated against in Pakistan and Bangladesh on religious grounds. Though in 1947, Hindus accounted for 24 per cent of the then Pakistan's population, now number under two per cent. Situation is equally grave in Bangladesh where Hindus numbered 30 per cent in 1947, but now number nine per cent. However, in India, the present percentage of Muslim population is much higher than that in 1947.

Pakistan and Bangladesh have yet to explain what they have done to their Hindu population.

Hindus suffer constant threats to their lives, security and property in Pakistan and Bangladesh. Many Hindu temples have been desecrated and destroyed in Pakistan and Bangladesh. There are regular reports of illegal encroachments on Hindu temples and lands, looting of Hindu property, discrimination, persecution, molestation and abduction of Hindu girls both in Pakistan and Bangladesh.

Forcible conversions and marriages

The alarming trend of Muslims kidnapping young Hindu girls and forcing them to convert to Islam is tormenting Hindus in Pakistan and Bangladesh.

As reported in Pakistan's premier English daily The Dawn dated November 3, 2005, 19 Hindu girls mostly from Punjab Colony, Karachi were missing from their homes. Relatives of these girls had reason to believe that they had been kidnapped and were being forced to change their religion, the press release added.

Recently, Irfan Husain's article entitled "Conversion Losses" has been published in The Dawn (dated December 3, 2005) www.dawn.com/weekly/mazdak/20051203.htm which relates tragedy of Hindu parents in Karachi whose three young daughters Reena, Usha and Rima of marriageable age vanished in October, 2005.

In a few days, the shocked parents received a courier package containing three identical affidavits from their daughters stating that they had converted to Islam and, therefore, could not live with their Hindu parents. As reported in the said article, father of the girls told the columnist, "We just sit and stare at each other. For us, life is over."

The ongoing trend in Pakistan and Bangladesh indicates that the girls have been kidnapped, forcibly married, and coerced to convert, but as helpless Hindus in Pakistan, their parents have no hope for justice. And this can happen to any Hindu parent in Pakistan and Bangladesh.

Discrimination and dispossession

Discrimination against Hindus is a fact of life as also a fact of law in Pakistan and Bangladesh.

As per Constitution of Pakistan, only a Muslim can be the President or Prime Minister of Pakistan. As per Bangladeshi Constitution too, only a Muslim can be the head of the state.

After being driven out from Pakistan, Hindus are being driven out from Bangladesh. And their lands and properties are being taken over by the government (under the Vested Property Act) to be distributed among Muslims.

The Vested Property Act was passed in 1965 as "Enemy Property Act" when as East Pakistan, Bangladesh was part of Pakistan. This law legitimized confiscation of Hindu property. After emergence of Bangladesh in 1971, this Act was renamed as the Vested Property Act, and the state was made the owner of the Hindus' property.

The Vested Property Act in Bangladesh has legitimized the forcible forfeiture of millions of acres of ancestral Hindu land.

Hindu genocide and persecution

During 1970 and 1971, Hindus in East Pakistan (present Bangladesh) underwent massive massacres by the Pakistani army. Over two million Hindus are reported to have been killed in genocide of Hindus in East Pakistan during 1970 and 1971 leading to Indo-Pak war in 1971. Besides, countless Hindu women were raped and kidnapped during this period.

Though Amnesty International too has shown concern about the plight of Hindus in Bangladesh, Bangladesh government has done nothing to provide any relief to Hindus.

Hindus are facing genocide, terror, persecution, dishonour and atrocities in Bangladesh every day. And there is selective killing of Hindu judges, professionals, teachers, lawyers and civil servants in Bangladesh to snuff out any chance of Hindu resistance and leadership.

Hindus in Pakistan and Bangladesh are facing disaster as their life, liberty, honour and property are insecure because of state policies and public action.

Way out

Let not India abdicate its responsibility by doing nothing and saying nothing in the ongoing genocide, deprivation and disaster of Hindus in Pakistan and Bangladesh.

In 1950, Prime Ministers of India and Pakistan signed an agreement called as Nehru Liaqat Pact under which both the governments undertook to protect life, liberty, religion and safety of minorities in each other's country.

It is Indian government's legal and moral duty to ensure that as per the Nehru-Liaqat Pact of 1950, and as per the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights, Pakistan and Bangladesh treat their minorities in a human manner. India must also ask Bangladesh to repeal Vested Properties Act, and hand over to Hindus their lands and properties.

The United Nations Commission on Human Rights (CHR) must also be approached to redeem the situation. Denial of human rights to Hindus violates UN Universal Declaration of Human Rights, 1948.

Conspiracy of silence

It is tragic that the unprecedented and unending tragedy of Hindus of Pakistan and Bangladesh remains untold by Indian media.

Why this Indian media's conspiracy of silence about genocide and oppression of Hindus in Pakistan and Bangladesh? And why this suppression of information about persecution of Hindus? The world needs to know about pathetic Hindu plight in these lands.

Deprived of their basic rights in Pakistan and Bangladesh, Hindus have only the right to suffer and right to silence.

Killing of Hindus in Pakistan, in Bangladesh or even in India is not taken seriously by media, by government or by various political parties or by human rights industry in India.

Is it because for some sections in India, only the terrorists, anti-national elements and Pak-Bangla infiltrators are entitled to fundamental and human rights?

A good indication of the state of the polity in Bharatam is the following report on Mulayam Singh Yadav's press conference. The report is so serious, so shocking in its implications for the future of Bharatiya polity, the shock paralyses us by the fact that the report does not make the headlines, does not even get reported on the frontpages of the p-sec media.

Vigilonline rightly asks Shekhar Gupta to grow up in the context of an editorial on the fake Sanjay Singh CD; the issue is much more than growing up. The issue relates to dirty tricks which were the forte of fascist, nazi regimes.

Mulayam Singh Yadav should certainly re-think the company he keeps getting support from CPI-M.

Two issues stand out in this episode reported by Mulayam.

1. Mulayam does NOT have faith in the CBI. This is a reasonable statement since CBI has increasingly become a hand-maiden of the major partner, Congress in UPA. This is a sorry state indeed that a premier investigating agency of the nation should be so perceived. Such a perception will only add to the levels of criminalisation of the polity which have reached intolerable levels.

2. Mulayam claims that Congress Party is behind the episode of the wire-tap. If he really believes so, he should re-think his support to UPA either covertly or overtly.

The most serious issue which should be of concern to all citizens of Bharatam is that there is no outrage at the ongoing subversion of the constitution almost in all fora, in all the four estates of the polity: executive, legislature, judiciary and media.

A dirty tricks department seems to be in place controlled and orchestrated from the highest reaches of governance. And no dog barks. That there is no bark makes the tragedy too deep for tears for the great democracy of the world, the most ancient democratic system in the world, the Bharatam.

One thing is clear: what we have in Hon'ble Manmohan Singh is a substitute PM, a nikamma PM. Someone else is in charge of the ongoing dirty tricks which have left the hindu samajam in a state of siege as Subramanian Swamy so rightly notes.

Why doesn't NDA together with Mulayam's SP take a walk to the Rashtrapati Bhavan. Such a walk will be good for their health and sanity in politics.

NEW DELHI: Uttar Pradesh chief minister Mulayam Singh Yadav on Tuesday held that SP leader Amar Singh's conversations with film actresses were his private affair and nobody had the right to breach his privacy.

The SP chieftain, who intensified his attack on Congress leadership for the alleged tapping of Amar Singh's phone, said violation of privacy was contrary to the basic tenets of the Constitution.

Yadav's remarks came against the backdrop of swirling suspicion in non-Congress circles that those behind the alleged tapping of the SP general secretary's phone might have wanted to embarrass him.

Amar Singh himself had indicated that 20 per cent of what had been tapped was a genuine conversation he had with somebody; and the rest a filthy concoction.

Determined to keep up the pressure on Congress president Sonia Gandhi for the alleged tapping, Yadav further stirred the already simmering SP-Congress cauldron by dismissing the police theory that the phone tapping was a result of forged letters and accusing the Congress chief of personally ordering the clandestine surveillance.

He rubbished the police probe as "Operation Cover-up".

The accusation at the Congress chief invited an angry rebuttal from Union government, with I&B minister P R Dasmunsi blaming it on Yadav's "personal frustrations".

Meanwhile, Delhi Police made the second arrest in the forgery case, nabbing main accused Bhupendra's aide Kuldeep on Monday night.

Kuldeep an employee of Reliance Infocomm, provider for Amar Singh's "tapped" phone, was recruited by Bhupendra, owner of a detective agency, to run the surveillance. He was remanded to police custody for three days.

Having flown from Lucknow especially to highlight the "illegality" before the media, Yadav disagreed with the theory of forged letters and sought an impartial probe.

Saying that he had no faith in CBI, Yadav suggested that either the investigations be handed over to the UP STF or it be probed by a panel of chief ministers Buddhadeb Bhattarcharya, J Jayalalithaa and Nitish Kumar.

The UP CM said that he will seek the President's protection on the illegal surveillance on states besides meeting the opposition leaders with his grievance.

Call it the “Theory of the Three Harmonies.” Three years after assuming power, President Hu Jintao has concocted the one slogan that his publicists hope will best sum up the statecraft of the Fourth Generation leadership: he-ping, he-jie and he-xie. This “triple he [harmony]” can be rendered as “seeking peace in the world, reconciliation with Taiwan, and harmony in Chinese society.”

Hu and long-time ally Premier Wen Jiabao have been digging deep into the Communist-Chinese canon as well as ancient Confucian classics to generate a pithy motto to replace ex-president Jiang Zemin’s embarrassingly obtuse dictum, “the Theory of the Three Represents.” Coined by Jiang and his advisers during the last segment of his 13-year rule, the “Three Represents” shibboleth—that the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) represents the highest level of productivity, the foremost culture and the people’s interests”—is widely seen as an elitist rallying cry to justify the empowerment of the “new class” of cadre-entrepreneurs. After taking over first the party leadership and then the chairmanship of the Central Military Commission (CMC), Hu is anxious to render the Hu-Wen team more appealing to the general populace. The important question is, of course, whether the “Theory of the Three Harmonies” will enable the CCP to mend its somewhat tattered mandate of heaven.

In marathon diplomatic forays the last two months of 2005, Hu, Wen and other senior Politburo members have told audiences around the world of Beijing’s commitment to the “peaceful rise” of China. Moreover, given that the pro-independence Democratic Progressive Party was badly bludgeoned in last month’s mayoral and county-level polls in Taiwan, the CCP leadership is anxious to expand its united front tactics and “smile diplomacy” toward the opposition Nationalist Party as well as business magnates in the “breakaway province.” Yet the focus of Hu watchers has been on the crucial element of the promotion of “social harmony.” Just going by reports in the Chinese and international media, the number of demonstrations and riots staged in 2005 by members of “disadvantaged sectors” such as disgruntled peasants would likely exceed the 74,000 cases that occurred in 2004. There are also disturbing signs that both central and provincial leaders have given orders to the police as well as the para-military People’s Armed Police (PAP) to use brute force if necessary to crush the seeds of revolt. Thus an estimated 30 peasants were shot dead by PAP officers during a confrontation in the farming and fishing village of Dongzhou, Guangdong Province last month. Dongzhou residents were protesting against the construction of a power plant, which would damage the environment and result in the forced eviction of thousands of residents.

Sources close to the Hu camp said the 63-year-old president—who has been widely criticized for cracking the whip on intellectuals, journalists and restive peasants—wanted to boost his domestic and international standing by echoing the liberal ethos associated with his mentor Hu Yaobang, the late CCP general secretary and leader of the Communist Youth League (CYL). Hu Yaobang, who was instrumental in making Hu Jintao CYL boss in the early 1980s, is still fondly remembered for his “Theory of the Three Tolerances.” The latter dictum—kuan-song, kuan-hou and kuan-rong [“leniency, generosity and tolerance”]—was the leitmotif of the five-year “Beijing spring” that reigned, albeit on a sporadic basis, in the Chinese capital in the run-up to the 1989 Tiananmen Square massacre. An innovative theoretician, Hu Yaobang had advocated bold departures from Marxist-Leninist dogma and the allowance of party and government policy to reflect the real wishes of intellectuals and proletariats alike.

Obviously, neither Hu nor Wen intend to push forward the ideological liberalization movement begun by the late Hu and other early-generation CYL chieftains such as another disgraced Politburo member Hu Qili. Yet since gaining power at the 16th CCP Congress in late 2002, both Hu and Wen have presented themselves as “people-caring sage-emperors” in the mold of Confucius’ ideal, humanistic rulers. Indeed, many of Hu and Wen’s slogans, including “putting people first,” “running the administration for the sake of the people,” and “seeking harmony in the midst of differences” are pulled right out of the teachings of Confucius and like-minded sages such as Mencius.

It cannot be denied that compared with administrations under Jiang and Deng, the Hu-Wen team has paid more attention—and lavished more resources—on disadvantaged groups such as retired workers or peasants. For example, Beijing last week announced the abolition of all rural taxes by the end of 2006, a move that would save rural residents up to 100 billion yuan. Moreover, Wen’s State Council indicated that 218 billion yuan would be spent on rural education during the 11th Five-Year Plan of 2006-2010. The question remains, however, whether the Hu-Wen team has stuck to a top-down, noblesse oblige type of “Confucianist authoritarianism,” whereby leaders dispense largesse from on-high while denying the masses any meaningful chance of participation in governance. To this day, the Hu leadership has refused to let farmers and workers form independent trade unions or other types of non-party-controlled political or economic organizations.

In a way, the one area that Hu Jintao may have done Hu Yaobang the proudest may be the elevation of dozens of CYL alumnae to senior party and State Council posts. Despite barely concealed opposition from the remnant affiliates of the Jiang or Shanghai Faction, Hu’s CYL followers are expected to grab the lion’s share of new party and government slots to be opened up at the 17th CCP Congress scheduled for next year. This is despite widely held reservations by cadres outside of the CYL Faction that quite a number of Hu protégés are career party affairs specialists who have dubious qualifications for portfolios ranging from finance and foreign trade to legal and judicial affairs.

Diplomatic analysts in Beijing said Hu since early 2005 has spent considerable time on consolidating his hold over the People’s Liberation Army (PLA), perhaps the only sector of the body politic that still escapes his domination. One of Deng Xiaoping’s lasting legacies is the late patriarch’s instructions to younger colleagues, including ex-president Jiang and Hu, that political stability in the country can only be ensured if the “CCP has absolute leadership over the army.” Hu, in fact, understands only too well that a key reason why the late Hu could be so easily removed from power in early 1987 was that the latter had no clout in the PLA whatsoever.

Hu’s task, however, has been made difficult by the fact that Jiang, who was CMC chief for nearly 15 years, had until the very last moment insisted on having the final say on senior-level appointments. In the past two months, however, the new CMC Chairman has demonstrated a firmer grip on military affairs by masterminding a series of personnel changes within the top brass. Given that unlike Deng, Hu had never been a professional soldier, the new commander-in-chief lacks a solid corps of loyalists among senior military officers.

Hu has resorted to mainly two tactics to build up his credentials as a commander-in-chief that passes muster. The first is to elevate the sons of First- and Second-Generation revolutionaries to senior PLA slots. For example, Gen. Liu Yuan, son of former state president Liu Shaoqi, was late last year promoted Political Commissar of the Academy of Military Sciences. Moreover, Gen. Zhang Haiyang, the son of retired general and former Politburo member Zhang Zhen, was made Political Commissar of the important Chengdu Military Region. Tradition matters in the PLA, and Hu garners goodwill and support by giving preference to the offspring of respected state and army leaders.

The new CMC chief has also tried to boost his standing by inducting more officers from the navy and the air force into the three PLA headquarter departments, namely, the General Staff Department (GSD), General Political Department (GPD) and the General Logistics Department (GLD). Traditionally, generals from the ground forces have monopolized most of the posts of these three top units. Hu’s structural reform has endeared himself to the navy and the air force—which have become the mainstay of China’s power projection in the new century. For instance, Air Force Generals Liu Zhenqi and Li Maifu were last month installed respectively as GPD Deputy Director and GLD Deputy Director, while General Tong Shiping, from the navy, was made GPD Assistant Director.

In the final analysis, Hu and Wen understand that a regime cannot last if it depends solely on the ruthless efficacy of its control mechanisms, which in China’s case include the PLA, PAP, the secret police and the regular police. Yet the risk-averse Hu is loathe to arouse false expectations among the nation’s intelligentsia by going all out in his emulation of Hu Yaobang’s “Theory of the Three Tolerances.” Plans mooted earlier this year by his aides, such as allowing a dozen-odd of the less controversial Tiananmen Square-related exiled dissidents to return to China, have been abandoned. It will not be surprising, then, that perhaps for the rest of the decade, Chinese society will only exude a kind of artificial, party-sanctioned harmony that endures at the pleasure of New Strongman Hu

One of the basic components of post-Mao China’s policy, domestic and international, is opposition to separatism. This policy reflects China’s uncompromising adherence to the maintenance of territorial integrity at all costs—primarily with regard to Taiwan, but also to Tibet, Xinjiang and Inner Mongolia. Similarly, the Chinese are fundamentally and officially opposed to separatist movements elsewhere, suggesting recently that self-determination should not necessarily involve national independence and that stateless nations should not necessarily form, or be given, states.

These rules also apply to the Kurds. To be sure, Chinese scholars deplore the Kurdish “tragedy:” the fact that a nation with such a long history could never set up its own country; the refusal of any country to seriously help the Kurds; and the use of force by host governments (primarily Turkey) to suppress Kurdish nationalism. Nevertheless, the Chinese ultimately admit that the Kurds’ demand for independence endangers these countries’ territorial integrity and national security. They claim that Kurdish legal rights should be respected and protected, but only within an autonomous arrangement in an existing state. Separatism will only lead to war, engender terrorism, and will ultimately be rejected by the international community [1].

At the time of the July 1959 Kirkuk riots in Iraq, Beijing rhetorically identified with the Kurds’ fight for independence against Baghdad (Asian Survey, 6:11, 1966).As the Kurdish revolt ended in March 1975, relations between China and Iraq began to improve. Moreover, in the 1980s Iraq became a major market for Chinese arms, some of which may have been used by Saddam against the Kurds. To be sure, until the early 2000s there was no real evidence of any Chinese interest in the Kurds, who claim independence from countries with which Beijing maintains full diplomatic relations (Iraq since 1958, Turkey and Iran since 1971).

Estimated at over 23 million, about 14.5 million Kurds live in Turkey (20 percent of the population); 4.6 million in Iran (7 percent); 4.3 million in Iraq (17 percent), and at least 1 million (some 9 percent) in Syria. Beijing has legally and officially recognized the territorial integrity and sovereignty of all these countries. Simultaneously, Beijing has undoubtedly been aware that already since the 1991 Gulf War, Kurds in Iraq have enjoyed de-facto independence, protected from Baghdad’s violence by a U.S.-enforced no-fly-zone. Since Saddam Hussein’s downfall in 2003, the Kurdish northern enclave has remained practically off-limits to the new Iraqi army. Correspondingly, there have been indications of growing Chinese interest in the Kurds.

In early August 2003 Beijing hosted Jalal Talabani, chairman of the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) and member of the Iraqi Interim Governing Council, who was later to become the first president of post-Saddam Iraq. Representing Iraq rather than the Kurds, he was invited by the Chinese People’s Association for Friendship with Foreign Countries, an official “unofficial” instrument, and headed the first Iraqi delegation to visit China after the war. Tang Jiaxuan, PRC Foreign Minister and State Councilor, urged his guest to restore stability under the auspices of the United Nations, underscoring that the legitimate interests of various countries in Iraq (and by implication China) should be guaranteed. He indicated China’s concern about the implementation of Iraq’s post-war economic reconstruction and willingness to actively participate in it (Xinhua, August 7, 2003).

Since then the Kurdish stake in Iraq’s politics has grown dramatically. Following the January 30, 2005 election in Iraq, a Kurdish coalition won a major 75-seat bloc in the parliament. This led to the appointment of the Kurdish leader Jalal Talabani as Iraq’s first Kurdish president. Closely following these events, the Chinese media failed to mention the actual relations between China and the Kurds. These include a Chinese Communist Party (CCP) delegation led by Ding Lifen— who reportedly represented the International Department and the Central Committee—that arrived in early May 2005 through the Al-Munziriyah Crossing near Khanaqin (on the Iranian border). The delegation was received by the heads of the PUK Khanaqin media office and organization center. A member of the delegation said that the visit came in response to the PUK invitation and followed a visit by a PUK delegation to China that led to the “strengthening of relations between the two parties.” He added that these relations have gathered momentum, particularly after the “historic visit” by PUK leader Jalal Talabani to China (Al-Ittihad [Baghdad], May 11, 2005).

On May 15, chairman of the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) Massoud Barzani met the Chinese Ambassador to Iraq and the Embassy’s economic and trade counselor. On behalf of his government, the ambassador invited Barzani to visit China. Stressing the Chinese people’s appreciation for the many sacrifices endured by the Kurdistan people, he expressed his hope for closer relations between the two peoples through expanded ties between the PRC and the Kurdistan regional government and especially between the CCP and the KDP. He underlined the important role of the Kurdistan people in rebuilding a federal and democratic Iraq. In response Barzani expressed his hope that the Chinese government would play its role in rebuilding Kurdistan (Khabat [Arbil], May 16, 2005).

One of the outcomes of these exchanges emerged in July 2005 when a weekly journal published by the Communist Party of Iraqi Kurdistan said that worldwide support for China was rising at the expense of the United States. Although the article, which was based on a U.S. publication (The Connecticut Post, June 24, 2005) did not mention the Kurds, it contained an implicit hint: “We [Kurds] should also say that the war of liberating Iraq has provided a big service to the people of Iraq and has encouraged others in the region and this war is still not finished” (Regay Kurdistan [Arbil], July 10, 2005, emphasis added). While Kurdish leaders, especially President Talabani, publicly brush aside the possibility of secession, they still insist on their right to self-determination “in case trouble erupts in Iraq in the future” (Chinadaily.com, August 17, 2005).

China’s gestures to the Kurds are motivated by several interests. First, they are used as leverage against Turkey, which still hosts Uyghur separatist activists and organizations. From the mid-1990s, Beijing has been applying pressure on Ankara to curb Uyghur separatist activism in its territory. Fully aware of the Kurdish issue in Turkey’s domestic politics and foreign policy, Beijing can use its relations with the Kurds—who claim Turkish territory—to twist Ankara’s arm even further [2]. Beijing uses the analogy between Uyghur and Kurdish separatism, implicitly threatening that if Ankara would continue to support Uyghurs, Beijing would support Kurds. Alluding to the Kurds, when President Jiang Zemin visited Turkey in April 2000 he commented that both countries were faced with the task of protecting national unity and territorial integrity and both opposed all kinds of international terrorism, national separatism and religious extremism (Turkish Probe, April 23, 2000; Guangzhou Ribao, April 21, 2000). Another consideration is China’s attempt to outflank the United States in Iraq by gaining a foothold in the north. Finally and most importantly, Beijing is interested in northern Iraq’s rich oilfields, primarily those controlled by the Kurds. According to official sources in Kurdistan, this region contains about 40 percent of Iraq’s oil reserves, or about 130 billion barrels.

The Chinese are evidently aware that Iraq’s new constitution, approved on October 15, 2005, uses ambiguous language on the issue of who is to control the oil industry—the central government or the local governments (Renmin Ribao, October 19, 2005). The constitution says that the central government and the local administrative authorities will cooperate in “managing” the “present” oilfields. It fails to precisely define what it means by “manage,” since such a definition may have certainly led to friction and conflict (Renmin Ribao, September 22, 2005). Similarly, while the use of the word “present” oilfields maintains ambiguity with regard to the “management” of “old” oilfields, it implies that the “management” of new oilfields—and their profits—would be controlled by local authorities. Consequently, the Kurds would likely control the old oilfields in their territory (notably in Kirkuk and Khanaqin) and will definitely control the new oilfields and oil explorations.

Indeed, it was recently disclosed that already in 2004 the KDP that controls much of northwestern Iraq, discreetly signed a deal with Norway’s DNO Company to drill for oil near the border city of Zakho, without Baghdad’s knowledge, let alone approval. DNO subcontracted the building of the oil drilling rig to the Chinese (unlisted) Great Wall Drilling Oil Company “that copied the latest American model.” Imported from China, the 30-floor tall rig was erected in 90 days and is capable of drilling 6,000 meters deep. This is the first rig in Kurdish Iraq since the 2003 war and the first in Iraq built by an international company in 20 years (The Globe, November 8, 2005). Drilling was launched on November 29, 2005, reportedly providing Nechirvan Barzani, prime-minister of the Kurdish northern government, with an occasion to vow: “There is no way Kurdistan would accept that the central government will control our resources […] The time has come that instead of suffering, the people of Kurdistan will benefit from the fortune and resources of their country.” Similar oil ventures are being explored with other foreign companies in other parts of Kurdish northern Iraq (Los Angeles Times, December 1, 2005).

It is inconceivable that the Chinese are not exploring possible oil resources in Kurdish controlled northern Iraq. Last October Beijing hosted a PUK delegation led by Korsat Rasul Ali, member of the PUK Politburo, conveniently referred to as an “Iraqi guest.” Welcoming the delegation, Wang Jiarui, head of the CCP International Department, expressed the hope to further increase cooperation between the two parties in various respects, noting China’s willingness to make active efforts for Iraq’s reconstruction (Xinhua, October 20, 2005). China’s interest in Kurdish oil reflects Beijing’s growing thirst for energy resources, especially since its Iraqi oil concessions have been suspended by the United States after the 2003 war. Already in November 1996 Iraq’s National Assembly had approved a proposal by China National Oil and Gas Exploration and Development Corporation to develop Iraq’s al-Ahdab oilfields. Located about 40 miles south of al-Kut in central Iraq, this field has an output potential of 80-90,000 b/d and an estimated reserves of 140 million tons, or 1.4 billion barrels. Based on this approval, in June 1997 CNPC together with NORINCO (China’s Northern Industries Corporation, a huge ordnance production conglomerate) formed a new company called al-Waha and signed a 50 percent post-sanction production-sharing contract to be implemented in 22 years, pledging to invest US$1.26 billion in al-Ahdab’s development and operating costs. While several French and Russian oil companies have conducted negotiations for the development of oilfields in Iraq, the al-Ahdab deal was the first to be actually signed (U.S. Energy Information Administration). By that time the Chinese were holding negotiations aimed at acquiring rights in at least three other Iraqi oilfields. Undoubtedly, these initiatives had been undertaken in anticipation of Iraq’s increased oil production and export once UN sanctions are lifted. Yet as soon as the war ended, Washington swiftly suspended China’s oil concessions in Iraq. Kurdish oil may become a substitute.

Beijing’s overtures toward the Kurds, who are treated as an almost independent nation, undermine its own policies and contradict its own principles on separatism. In no way would Beijing permit another country to treat China’s Uyghurs, Tibetans or Mongols likewise and sympathize publicly with their plight, invite their leaders, send delegations, hold negotiations, or sign agreements with them behind Beijing’s back. Importantly, China’s Kurdish policy does not mean that the Chinese are interested in Iraq’s disintegration, hoping to benefit from a new and independent Kurdish state. In addition to unleashing regional instability that would be detrimental to China’s interests, Kurdish independence would encourage other separatist movements (notably the Uyghur and the Tibetan) to fight for the same cause. On the other hand, complete Kurdish dependence on the “new” Iraq would render complete control over the north (and its oilfields) to not only Baghdad but, furthermore, to Washington. Thus the existing situation in northern Iraq, with increased Kurdish autonomy within a weak Iraqi state is, under the present circumstances, optimal for Beijing’s interests and conforms to its views on limited self-determination.

Disclaimer

The views, opinions, positions or strategies expressed by the authors and those providing comments are theirs alone, and do not necessarily reflect the views, opinions, positions or strategies of IntelliBriefs or any employee thereof. IntelliBriefs make no representations as to accuracy, completeness, currentness, suitability, or validity of any information on this blog and will not be liable for any errors, omissions, or delays in this information or any losses, injuries, or damages arising from its display or use.

IntelliBriefs blog reserves the right to delete, edit, or alter in any manner it sees fit blog entries or comments that it, in its sole discretion, deems to be obscene, offensive, defamatory, threatening, in violation of trademark, copyright or other laws, or is otherwise unacceptable